or maybe it is, so many love poems keep appearing in the blogs. Love poems are some of the hardest poems to write, or so claimed W. H. Auden. Here are a few classics that have inspired poets and lovers over the years:
- The Passionate Shepherd to His Love by Christopher Marlowe
- The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd by Sir Walter Ralegh
- somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond by e. e. cummings
- Let me not to the marriage of true minds by William Shakespeare
- The Definition of Love by Andrew Marvell
- What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why by Edna St. Vincent Millay
- The Buried Life by Matthew Arnold
- A Birthday by Christina Rossetti
- How Do I Love Thee? by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
- Wild Nights — Wild Nights! by Emily Dickinson
- When You Are Old by W. B. Yeats
- Credo by Matthew Roher
A few suggestions: use concrete, specific images to show your feelings; avoid sing-song "roses are red" type rhyming; try to say something fresh and new that gives readers a new insight — or even a laugh.
And check out the following topics:
15 Poems You Can Write Now
You can start these 15 poems right now. Besides being challenging and fun to work on, they can lead to some strong poems. For best results, paste the activity into your word processor, or print out a hard copy. Then write quickly and freely, trusting your imagination, hunches, gut feelings. When you finish, read the poem aloud a few times in private. When you're ready, share the poem with a partner or in a small group. Try working on them in your blog, where you can choose to keep them private or share them.
Read more ...Make Poems
The word "poet" derives from ancient Greek, where it meant "to make." Before people wrote, they made poems. And still today, people who don't write, make poetry. Even more fundamentally than a writer, then, a poet is a maker, an inventor — in language.
Read more ...A Sense of Form
A poem's form is partly visual: its look on the page. George Herbert's "Easter Wings" is an example of striking visual form, as is e. e. cummings' "r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r." But visual form also works in less obvious ways. The lean, spare look of most Emily Dickinson poems complements her terse style, while the long, sweeping lines of Walt Whitman accentuate his bold, expansive message.
Read more ...
